Blueberry Coconut Breakfast Cookies

This is one of those recipe that I pinned on Pinterest but forgot about it. Once I re-discover it and baked it, we are hooked.

The first time I made these breakfast cookies, I made it with macadamia nuts. The coconut oil, macadamia nuts, banana, and vanilla baking in the oven smelled incredibly delicious. I have since tried with almonds and pecan, but the macadamia nuts version is the favorite in the household. Kaydn, usually is not impressed with "healthy" treats, but he'd eat these up straight out of the oven! I have to fight him off if I want to give some away.

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 

2 tablespoon golden flax seed meal

3 table spoons hemp seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts)

1/2 cup dried blueberries

Wet ingredients:

3 ripe regular size bananas, mashed

1/4 cup coconut oil, warm enough to be liquid

1 tablespoon raw honey or agave

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add all other wet ingredients and stir together until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until well combined. (Note: The mixture will seem a little dry once the coconut oil cools down and solidify but the cookie should hold the shape when it's removed from the cookie cutter.)

Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Press mixture into round cookie cutter (2 1/4 inch or 2 1/2 inch) and place on the cookie sheet. You can also use square or triangle baking pan. 

Bake 350 degree for 25 minutes or until golden. Let cool on cookie sheet. It's best when they are still warm and toasty and crunchy on the outside. Yield about 15 cookies. Store in a airtight container, reheat in toaster oven to serve.

Original recipt for the blueberry-coconut-pecan-breakfast can be found on http://www.kumquatblog.com/2012/03/blueberry-coconut-pecan-breakfast.html

Coconut Lime Cilantro Cashew Chicken

When I got home from the gym yesterday (Kaydn had swim and I went to Zumba), the only thing I had done for dinner was taking some chicken breast from the freezer to the fridge to thaw. It was one of those evenings that you wish dinner was already prepared . . .  or a little better planned . . .  oh well.

After thinking over all of options of a chicken dish and to use up whatever is in my fridge, I came up with this coconut lime cilantro cashew chicken, and it was surprisingly good. I love the coconut, lime, and cilantro combination!

3 chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 onion, half and then sliced
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 yellow pepper, cut into thin strips
1 zucchini, half and then thinly sliced
1 cup cilantro
1/2 cup cashew (I used raw cashew since that is what I have in the house)
1 can of coconut milk (I used about 2/3 can that was left over)
1 - 2 Tbs shoyu or tamari sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 Tbs agave

Sauté onions with some olive oil until slightly softened, add the sugar snap peas, stir and cook for a couple of minutes, add peppers and zucchini and stir. Sauté until vegetables are cooked but still crunchy. Remove the vegetables from pan and set aside.

Sauté chicken with olive oil. When chicken pieces are almost cooked, add the vegetables to pan. Add the seasonings and stir to make sure the sauce covers the chicken and vegetables evenly. Add cilantro and cashew, stir lightly, remove from heat and place  in a serving dish.

Smoothies

Cassidy & I have been on a alkalizing detox program for a little while. She did it to improve her health and lose some weight; I did it to support her and also to get a start with my new gluten free eating plan. I think gluten has been giving me digestive trouble so I decided to removed it from my diet, along with dairy and sugar which I gave up a couple of year ago. The 21 days alkalizing detox plan is basically gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free plus lots of other restrictions. Some days I feel like a rabbit while I'm munching on baby carrots, cucumbers, and celery sticks. . . .
The best thing that we learned from the detox program is that I discovered some really yummy non-dairy smoothies. We started the program at the beginning of December; what a terrible time to embark a new eating challenge! I felt like there was no way I could help Cassidy to get going since December was the busiest time of the year for me but I managed to come up with a plan.

To save time, I peel and cut up the fruits in advance (approximately 1" chunks), measure and store them in zip lock bags in the freezer. Since I always make two large smoothies, each bag contain 16 oz of fruits.
When I make smoothies, I just pull out one zip lock bag, break up the frozen fruits a bit, dump them in our VitaMix Blending Station blender, add almond, rice, or coconut milk beverage to 16 oz mark and start blending. Usually a little more liquid is needed to keep the blender going until the frozen fruits and non-dairy milk are blended smoothly. I prefer the coconut milk (Silk PureCoconut original) with my smoothies but almond (Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Vanilla, unsweetened) or rice milk (Kirkland Signature Organic Ricemilk original) works well also.

Below is a list of smoothies flavors that we love.

Mango Pineapple
8 oz mango
8 oz pineapple

Pineapple Kiwi
3 large kiwi
enough pineapple chunks added to make 16oz

Pineapple Peach
8 oz pineapple
8 oz peaches

Pineapple Raspberries
10 oz pineapple
6 oz raspberries
1 Tbs agave

Raspberries Peach
10 oz peaches
6 oz raspberries
1 Tbs agave

Blueberries Raspberries
8 oz blueberries
8 oz raspberries

"Frosty" smoothie treat
1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk (Blue Diamond Almond Breeze sweetened, or other brand) place in ice tray and freeze into ice cubes
2 Tbs baking cocoa
1 Tbs agave
1/2 cup Sweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

Breakfast Green Smoothie
1/4 cup almond meal
1 piece of fresh ginger, 1/2' thick
1 cup fresh baby kale
1 cup fresh spinach
8 oz mango
8 oz pineapple
6 oz coconut water

Pumpkin, Apple, and Chive Biscuit and other variations

I am not sure if it is "old age" or my liver is no longer functioning well, gluten has been giving me digestive trouble. Couple of year ago I removed dairy and refine sugar from my diet and now gluten is gone. At this rate, pretty soon I will not be eating anything . . . maybe only veggie and fruits. . .  :-(
With my new eating plan, I've been on the lookout for gluten free recipes and I discover a blog called The Urban Poser by Jenni Hulet and absolutely love just about everything. Everything looks so yummy delicious and it's mostly dairy free and gluten free. I almost pinned every photo onto my Pinterest.

The original recipe is called Pumpkin, Apple, Bacon, and Chive Biscuit from The Urban Poser but since bacon is not on the alkalizing detox plan which is  dairy free, gluten free, and sugar free and Cassidy thought the biscuits are too "eggy" (can anyone tell that she doesn't like eggs), so here I am changing recipes.

Dry ingredients:
1/2  cup coconut flour (original recipe called for 1 cup coconut flour, the biscuit is very falls apart easily)
1/2 cup gluten free flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (original recipe calls for 1 tsp baking but I think the final product tastes too much of baking soda)
1/4  tsp salt

Wet ingredients for pumpkin biscuit:
1/2  cup coconut oil, softened
2/3  cup fresh roasted pumpkin puree (butternut squash, acorn squash...)
4-8 Tbsp of coconut milk beverage (depending on the moisture content of the squash)
1 egg
2 Tbs chive chopped, thinly sliced (or dehydrated)
1/4 cup very finely chopped tart apples
(1/4 cup bacon pieces)

Since there is no added sweetener in this recipe, I came up with a different version of the biscuit - apple cinnamon - to be enjoyed while we are on the detox challenge. It's very yummy! Cassidy likes it better than the pumpkin version.

Same dry ingredients as above and add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of all spice for apple cinnamon biscuits. 

Wet ingredients for apple cinnamon biscuit:

1/2  cup coconut oil, melted
2/3  cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 egg

1/4 cup very finely chopped tart apples

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine dry ingredients, shift, and set aside.

In a separate bowl combine the coconut oil, pumpkin puree (or apple sauce), coconut milk (for pumpkin biscuit only), egg, and beat till smooth.  Add the flour mixture to the batter and mix well until no lumps. Add apples and chives (or apples for apple cinnamon biscuit) and mix well. The batter should not be too thick, a little on the soft side but still be able to hold together. Add more liquid if needed as it may vary depending on the texture of the pumpkin puree. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop and drop batter onto the oiled or parchment paper lined baking sheet.Makes about 8-10 scones.

Bake for about 20-25 min or until slightly golden. Do not over bake of they will be dry. Best eaten same day or while still warm. Can store in airtight container and reheat in toaster oven or microwave before serving.

Gluten free flour recipe from The Art of Gluten Free Baking:

1 1/4 C (170 g) brown rice flour
1 1/4 C (205 g) white rice flour
1 C (120 g) tapioca flour
1 C (165 g) sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour or under the brand name, Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum